Saturday, February 25, 2012

I've been stuck in a bit of a thifting rut lately. It's pretty much darn near impossible to scour the cut throat estate sales with a toddler and a newborn in tow. Plus, estate sales are pretty few and far between in the middle of winter. Luckily, I've got quite a backlog of items that have been in need of being washed, photographed, and listed in my shop.

A couple months ago I went to an estate sale that happened to be in the home of a former quilter. In addition to this quilt that I already showed you, I picked up eight doll quilts, a lap quilt and two gorgeous, hand pieced, trip around the world quilts.

This lady must have finished each quilt then immediately stashed it away, because all of these are in such amazing condition - they look like they were just made yesterday. And each one of them contains the most beautiful little pieces of vintage fabric that look like they were just cut right off the bolt.

All of these - plus lots of more vintage sheets, fabric, and pillowcases - are all now available in my shop.

And if vintage quilts and sheets aren't your thing - how about some new fabric? Brenda, owner of Pink Castle Fabric, has asked me to come up with my own fabric Blogger Bundle to celebrate the move of Pink Castle from their Etsy shop to the new PinkCastleFabrics.com!

I usually gravitate towards aquas, greens, and blues, but I'm ready for some sunshine and warmer weather, so this bundle entitled Citrus Sunrise is full of cheery lemon yellows, watermelon pinks, and tangerine oranges. Delicious! You can find this designer 12 fat quarter set available here in Brenda's shop.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I was planning on doing a tutorial on how to make this lovely crib skirt, but I ended up going into labor just after I started making it. I wanted to be really sure it was true labor before I went to the hospital, so I kept working away on this project, pausing every 10 minutes, 7 minutes, 5 minutes to grab the table, white-knuckled and try not to scream my head off. So sufficient to say, I did not take any pictures of the process. But I'll try to walk you through the construction nonetheless.

So basically a crib skirt is made up of a deck and three panels (I didn't make one for the 4th side since it would be up against a wall and you wouldn't see it anyway). The deck is just a measurement of the crib mattress size, which is a standard 28" x 52". The side panels are the length of the side and then the measurement of where you want the skirt to hit the floor.

With this crib skirt, I left it hanging a good 6 inches or so off of the floor. That way when the crib mattress is lowered when Penelope gets older, it will just brush the floor as opposed to puddling in a crinkled mess.

I ended up using exactly one yard of each fabric for the ruffles. I cut the bottom two colors into 6 inch tall strips and the top color into 5 inch tall strips (this makes all of the ruffles appear the same size since there is about one inch of overlap on the bottom two ruffles).

To get a full ruffle-y effect I cut my strips 2 1/2 times as long as each panel. So for the short sides, my strips were 70" and the long front panel strips were 130". Hem the two short ends and one of the long sides. Then I simply ruffled the strips by sewing a long basting stitch along the unhemmed side and gathering the fabric until it was the length of the panel, pinned it down like crazy, and sewed it to the panel.

For the topmost strips, I sewed them to the panels - wrong sides facing - so that the raw edges would not be exposed, but for the middle and bottom strips, I simply laid them so they were laying right side up because the raw edges would be covered by the ruffle from above. I didn't even bother to remove my gathering stitches since they won't be seen anyways.

Then I sewed the panels to the deck.

Ta-da!

Now since you've tackled the crib skirt, you can go on to make one of those fancy shower curtains from Anthropologie. But probably not for awhile. You'll be super sick of ruffling.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I'm happy to say that so far Penelope has proved to be a pretty patient little baby, and didn't seem to mind that her nursery was still in shambles when she arrived.Thankfully, she's also been a great sleeper, so I've been able to finish it up before she outgrew it! We recycled most of the furniture and main baby items from Phoebe's nursery, but went with a completely different color palette.

Want to see a before picture (as in, before we bought the house)? Click here. But be warned, it's a little scary. Once again, Polly finds herself right at home in the crib.

I want to secure and paint that darn cord the same color as the wall, but with a newborn and a 2 1/2 year old, I've got better things to do with my (almost nonexistent) free time.I found that sweet little Hansel and Gretal lamp for $3 at my local thrift store and added a clearance lampshade from Target. The house lights up too!

More info on the ABC crewelwork sampler here. I totally copied these doily clouds from here.I picked up the bird screen print from local artist Marcy Davy of All Things Grow, the book was thrifted, and the cat was my great-grandmothers.I made the crib sheet from one of my favorite vintage sheets using Dana's tutorial - which is ridiculously simple and fantastic. I ended up getting Phoebe to sleep in her big girl bed by letting her pick out her own fabric for her sheets. Now she has kitty sheets, snowman sheets, and butterfly sheets. It's crazy how much joy a fitted sheet brings her.

The stuffed lamb has been around for awhile, but has seemed to take up residence in the crib because she matches so darn well.Stay tuned for a post on how I made this super-sweet crib skirt!*The post is up! Click here for a how-to*The doily lamp will be getting it's own post too. The nursery at night. Such a cozy place for a sweet baby!

I actually completed it just before Penelope arrived, but I didn't get around to framing it until as of late. It's now hanging in her completed nursery (well, as completed as it's going to be) that will be revealed tomorrow! Yay!

This project was my first go around with crewel and I am utterly smitten. I'm hoping that Alicia will come up with a new kit sometime in the future, but until then her Winterwood cross stitch sampler is looking very enticing....

Friday, February 3, 2012

I'm not sure if it's because we have a new baby at home, she's just getting over a cold, or because she's just being 2 1/2 (probably all of the above), but Phoebe has been particularly difficult and uncooperative lately - and that's putting it nicely.

She is particularly pissed off in the above photo (and this was the best looking from the whole screaming, crying bunch) because - 1. She's wearing a shirt that she did not pick out herself. 2. She'd probably rather be having a root canal than have her picture taken.

Bring on the chocolate chips....

Okay, let's try this again (and let's try to ignore the sock-covered hand accessory that she refused to take off)....

I'm testing out Rae's new pattern for her Skinny Tee. Can I say - what a freaking fantastic pattern!

I made this version out of an old shirt from the thrift store - which is my favorite source for knit fabrics. They're super cheap, and you get to take advantage of things such as already finished hemlines, and premade cuffs - which save tons of time and effort while sewing.

This is a must-have, basic pattern for anyone sewing kids clothes. Once you've made it once or twice, it comes together incredibly fast (we're talking 1/2 an hour, people!), and can be customized for soooooo so many different looks. Plus, it comes in sizes 12 months - 5T, so this pattern is going to get a ton of use in my house.

And no, Rae's not paying me to say any of this....
But she's welcome to!

The Skinny Tee pattern should be up on Rae's blog in the next couple of days.